No. 2 Auburn rebounded from its lone loss of the season against No. 9 Duke earlier this week with a 98-54 victory over the Richmond Spiders inside of Neville Arena on Sunday.
“I thought that had a chance to be a trap game coming off of Maui and then Duke,” said Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl. “I’m just very, very impressed with my guys for being excited about playing.”
The Tigers found success through their 3-point shooting, going 13-for-30 from behind-the-arc. The main contributors were Denver Jones, who made three 3-pointers, while Miles Kelly and Tahaad Pettiford each added four makes from deep.
One of the keys for Auburn was its ball movement. The Tigers tallied 23 assists on 33 made shots with only seven turnovers compared to 15 turnovers for the Spiders.
“We turned them over early, and that sort of set the tone for us,” Pearl said. “We didn’t turn Duke over. We kind of let Duke run their offense, and that would be one thing that we look back at and you know, it’s hard to do, easier said than done, but Richmond takes good care of the basketball. They average nine turnovers a game, and we had about that many at halftime.”
Freshman forward Jahki Howard played his first meaningful moments since the season opener against Vermont. Howard grabbed four rebounds and added 13 points including a big dunk over the Richmond defender.
“Jahki didn’t make the trip to Houston, and then missed a couple games, but then he was on our bench,” Pearl said. “Problem is he was on our bench when we’re going to Maui and then come back going to Duke, and there was just no opportunity to get him rotations in practice.”
With Howard’s success over the Spiders, he will look to find more minutes and work his way back into the rotation in the coming games.
“It was great knowing the situation he'd been through,” Pettiford said. “Just him being a good teammate throughout the games he couldn’t play, showing up to practice everyday, working as hard as he can just trying to get back in the rotation. You know, seeing him come out there doing what he does best, and he was loving it. You know, he’s happy doing it so that’s the best.”
Auburn’s Johni Broome had his lowest scoring performance of the season so far, scoring only 11 points to go along with five rebounds and six assists. This snaps Broome’s five game streak of at least 20 points per game and snaps his streak of six straight double-doubles. However, Broome reached double figures in scoring for the 35th straight game.
“(Broome) only played 23 minutes and only scored 11 points, and he didn’t care,” Pearl said. “He was just happy with the win and ready to get to Ohio State, and I think when you have that attitude, it’s infectious on the team.”
Auburn will take the court next on Saturday, Dec. 14 when they take on Ohio State in Atlanta and look for another high-major victory to add to its resume. Tip off is at 12 p.m. CST and will be televised on ESPN.
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Marshall is a junior majoring in Journalism. He joined the Plainsman in the fall of 2024.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @marshalldow02
